My Consolation Vacation – Wildwood - Page 10 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
I am a member of the Emerald Club. But it's been many, many years since I rented with them. I'm thinking we always ended up with a Chevy Impala, which had a huge trunk which was necessary with 2 small kids, 2 car seats, 2 umbrella strollers, you get the idea! I think the Impala was considered a full size at that point so I did consider it an upgrade.
So when we last left off on the official TR, Evan had just completed his first ride at Diggerland, the Ground Shuttle.
After that we just started to walk around and he went on whatever he wanted. It wasn’t crowded and there was basically no wait for anything.
Since this was a totally new experience for us we had no touring plan. There was no hand-out park map so we just really followed the trail and went to each attraction in turn. I will just let the photos speak for themselves.
It is so weird for me to be in a “theme park” like place and not have a map and an idea of what we are doing. I’m a planner, like most of you, and I was just winging it at this point. I couldn’t help but think about Walt’s comments about there ought to be a place where parents and kids can have fun together. I think that a lot when I’m watching Evan on rides and I’m just off to the sidelines. Another reason I love Disney so much, we both go on the rides.
As Evan went on some of the various pieces of equipment I grabbed photos of the game room, Rock wall, Obstacle course and playground.
I was people watching too. The place is fairly small and since it wasn’t crowded we kept seeing the same people over and over again. I noticed an adult couple there. They were here by themselves, no children. Now don’t get me wrong. Diggerland was cute and all but if I didn’t have Evan with me there is no way in heck I would have spent 30.00 to go there. Well to each his own I guess.
I think Evan’s favorite ride of the day was the Spin Dizzy. He went on this thing about 5 or 6 times. It basically spins around – no thank you. The video is pretty self-explanatory.
Video - double click, don't know why it is so small. Yes that is me laughing and Evan squealing
It was hot so we took a break and got a drink and had a bathroom run and then it was back to more fun.
As the morning wore into the afternoon I was getting hungry but Evan was having too much fun to think about eating. Finally I convinced him we needed to eat. We went to the snack bar (only place) and checked out the menu. As you would expect it was expensive. I decided I would get him a hot dog. There were 2 prices 2.99 and 4.95 I assumed 2.99 was just a hot dog and the 4.95 was a meal of some sort. I ordered a hotdog. All I wanted was one hotdog and was going to get him chips instead of fries. The conversation went something like this…
Girl - Rings in the price, “4.95”
Me – “No I just want a hotdog not a meal”
“That is the price”
“For just a hotdog!!?”
“Yes”
“What is the 2.99 price for?”
“I don’t know, when I push the button it says 4.95”
A brief pause as I stand there with my mouth open. She doesn’t offer to look into the error or try to figure it out…
“Nevermind, we will just go someplace else”
I really couldn’t believe how unhelpful she was. She wasn’t rude it was just an I-don’t-know, I-don’t-care sort of attitude. And there was no manager or anyone there to help out either.
Sorry I can't help you with any of your WDW-related questions.
Walt really did have it right about kids and adults riding together-- and about a lot of other things, like customer service. That snack bar employee was unbelievable! I don't know how kids do those spinning rides, but Evan sounds like he was loving it!
I'm dizzy after just watching that ride! Sounds like Evan had fun on it though I can't believe that cashier's attitude, that would have made me so mad!
I couldn't even finish the SpinDizzy video as watching made me motion sick. Brave Evan to ride that thing. So ridiculous that the employee knew so very little about her job!
More fun at Diggerland. That ride is dizzy and I love my thrill rides! That cahier should have just sold the hotdog to you for $2.99 to make it less of a problem and not lose the sale! She should have at least gotten her manager.
__________________
October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
You have been having so much fun! Loved the pics of Evan playing baseball! And how cool is Diggerland for him - driving those skid steers looks pretty cool!
I just joined National Car Rental's Emerald Club. I'm curious about the Emerald Aisle Service. Has anyone used it? I'm wondering how many cars are there in the row that are "above" the midsize/intermediate that you need to book. I’m looking to get a convertible but really wondering if there are typically any in the row or is National sneaky and really don't have anything other than the ICars in the row? Anyone actually able to get the "free upgrade" using Emerald Aisle Service?
I just used the Emerald Aisle Service a few weeks ago. There was definitely a wide variety of vehicles available (sorry, I didn't notice if there were any convertibles). I'm sure many of them were higher grade than Intermediate. Several of my co-workers got very cool SUVs with fancy options. It's also super easy because you just bypass the counter and go straight to you choosing a vehicle. Easy peasy!
I promise I haven't forgotten about this TR. I've been adjusting to the new back to school schedule and things are busy at work so I haven't been updating there either. I just get tired at night after getting Evan to bed so I've really been a slacker.
Tonight's goal is to load up the rest of the Diggerland photos and upload to photobucket. Hopefully write up the next installment by the weekend.
On a really good note, this past weekend Evan, a friend of his, myself and my mom spent the day in Philly. We saw the Liberty Bell, rode "the Ducks" and went to Fireman's Hall. The Duck ride was wonderful and I would reccommend them to anyone. But the best news was my mom. She wasn't going to go but we used her wheelchair and had no problems moving her about during the day. I hope that opened her eyes a little to the fact that she doesn't have to stop doing the things she loves just because her walking is not what it used to be. I'm still trying to get Evan to the zoo to see those adorable little Lion cubs that were born in June and just placed on display. There was a 5k run at the zoo last weekend and then again this weekend so I hope to get there in early October.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
We'll be here when you are ready Holly! I think we can all understand how sometimes life just gets in the way of our PP time I'm so glad that you had a fun day out with your Mom, that's great news!
About This Page: 
I think the Impala was considered a full size at that point so I did consider it an upgrade.
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
Holly: 
PassPorter Guide Author
Evan looks very intense on that first ride, although you wouldn't have got me near the spinning one either... 
I can't believe that cashier's attitude, that would have made me so mad!
That cahier should have just sold the hotdog to you for $2.99 to make it less of a problem and not lose the sale! 
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
I'm so glad that you had a fun day out with your Mom, that's great news!
Linear Mode
